Contemporary genetics between molecules and bodies: a historiographical essay
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/asclepio.2025.1432Keywords:
Biological heredity, Molecular Biology, Discrimination, Chromosomes, genetizationAbstract
This historiographical review offers a reflection that situates the successive political-epistemic moments in which works, studies, and thinking on the history of genetics have been constructed. It argues that the history of molecular genetics, like the genetization of biology, emerged with the captivating and promising results of the first genetic engineering experiments in the mid-1970s. It reviews the effort to biologize differences and prejudices, which has sought in molecules and chromosomes justifications for the cultural and social practices of racism, classism, and discrimination against gender diversity and intellectual and physical abilities. The debt to critical thinkers in biology and its gender and ethno-racial biases is enormous.
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